Mississauga teen gets $100,000 to stay out of school

Yoonseo Kang upset his parents last fall when he decided at the last minute not to go to the University of Toronto.

“I’d like to be at the place where I feel I could have the most impact to positively influence the world,” said 18-year-old Thiel Fellow Yoonseo Kang.

By:Jon KalishSpecial to the Star, Published on Wed Jun 13 2012

Yoonseo Kang upset his parents last fall when he decided at the last minute not to go to the University of Toronto.

The 18-year-old Mississauga high school graduate was planning to major in computer science. Instead, he cancelled his enrollment and moved to a farm in the United States to become part of a project that encourages everyday people to build their own machines, such as tractors and sawmills.

“Initially, I was going to go to college to study engineering but I also wanted to study economics and how we could build a better future,” the tall, soft-spoken young man explains. “My father wanted me to get an MBA and go into business but I didn’t terribly like the idea.”

After nominating himself for a Thiel Fellowship, becoming a finalist and delivering a two-minute presentation about his work with the Open Source Ecology project in Maysville, Missouri, Kang learned during a Skype chat in April that he was being offered a $100,000 fellowship. He drew laughter from officials of the Thiel Foundation when he responded, “I accept.”

The Thiel Fellowship comes with few responsibilities. Recipients must obtain health insurance and refrain from going to college for two years.

The fellowship was created by Peter Thiel, a gay libertarian billionaire who co-founded PayPal and was an early investor in Facebook. Each year his foundation selects 20 people under the age of 20 who can tap into what the foundation refers to as a network of “visionary thinkers, investors, scientists, and entrepreneurs. The foundation acknowledges its approach is a radical rethinking of education but insists that the fellows are given “guidance and business connections that can’t be replicated in any classroom.” Described as tech visionaries, the fellows are encouraged to pursue entrepreneurial endeavors.

An official announcement naming the 20 Thiel Fellows for 2012 will be made on Wednesday. Kang is one of two Canadians in the group. Nineteen-year-old Christopher Olah of Toronto will use his fellowship to focus on the use of 3D printers to produce educational aids, rudimentary scientific equipment and other tools. Described as an “amateur math wiz and a total geek,” Olah is a member of the HackLab hacker space in Kensington Market.

It has been an emotionally trying year for Kang. His decision not to attend university did not sit well with his parents, Korean immigrants who came to Ottawa in 2000 and place great value on higher education.

“I was shocked,” recalls his mother, Jangmee Park, who divorced Kang’s father in 2002. The father, a software engineer named Sejin Kang, returned to Korea that same year.

Kang’s father was so furious about his son’s decision to forgo university, that he urged Kang’s mother to seize his passport so he couldn’t go to the Open Source Ecology farm. Instead, his mother, who had moved the family to Mississauga in 2007, accompanied Kang when he moved to Missouri to make sure it was safe.

Kang resolved to volunteer at the Open Source Ecology project after seeing a TED Talk by its founder, a charismatic American physicist named Marcin Jakubowski. (TED is a nonprofit devoted to spreading ideas about technology, entertainment and design.)

Jakubowski acquired about 12 hectares in northwest Missouri’s farm country. After an initial focus on farming, he started designing and building affordable alternatives to agricultural and industrial machines with documentation made available free online, much like open source software. Jakubowski and a team of simpatico volunteers have constructed a handful of prototypes, including a tractor, soil pulverizer, compressed earth brick press and hydraulic power unit. Plans call for several dozen machines needed to build modern civilization. These are collectively known as the Global Village Construction Set.

Yoonseo Kang and his mother arrived at the Open Source Ecology farm last October. His mother cried when she saw the tiny shack where her son was to sleep. She also noticed the sink had no running water and that the refrigerator was about 40 metres from the dining area.

After his mother returned to Mississauga, Kang started working on a CNC (computer-controlled) milling machine. He also worked on the electronic controls for the compressed earth brick press, which made bricks used to construct the just-completed dormitory at the farm. The dorm has a kitchen no mother could fault and Yoonseo Kang has a bedroom that is bigger than his room back home.

While many 18-year-olds might wile away the hours on Facebook or texting friends, Kang is working on a project he believes will spread economic democracy.

“I’d like to be at the place where I feel I could have the most impact to positively influence the world,” he said after learning he was a Thiel Fellow.

Word of the fellowship has reached St. Francis Xavier Secondary School in Mississauga, where Kang was a member of the robotics club. Paul Lewis, a computer engineering teacher who coaches the club, remembers Kang as hardworking and focused. Lewis said he still hopes Kang will eventually go to college.

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